Murder Inc
by sbkproductions
Summary: A mafia style story, about the rise of a young boy in a strictly Jew Irish Crime Syndicate
1. Murder Inc

**Murder Inc.**

Written By

Sean B. Kelly

Publisher SBK PRODUCTIONS

Copy Write©2006


	2. The Calm Before The Storm

**The Inc.**

New York, New York. Home to some of the greatest gangsters in America. The worst part about it, no one knows every story. They call me Tommy, at least my friends do, Tommy Bratzini. It's time you knew the whole story, the real story. About how New York was really run.

It all started in Hell. Well Hell's Kitchen anyway, the kitchen's spat out some of the best recruits to ever live in the five points. Also home to Pop's Barbershop, my fathers place. He got the name from what he used to call his father. Pops. Now that's what everyone calls him. He was one of the most honest, stand up guys in New York, but he also knew how the city worked, and he stayed clear of that life. Now, I've been goin' to work with my pops ever since I could walk, but even though he didn't do a whole lot besides cut hair I just loved to watch him work. He always tells me that if he could leave me home with my moms he would, but she died when she was givin' birth to me. I never really knew why he didn't want me hangin' around the shop, all he ever said was, "This part of Hell is dangerous son, and you'll understand one day when you're older." So I never really gave it a lot of thought but when I was about nine that day came.

I remember I was sitting on my pop's counter next to the cash register, watchin' him trim this guy's beard, when this guy came running around the corner and ran inside our shop. Then he ducked inside our window, and not a moment later there was a huge explosion outside, and it shattered the windows and knocked me off the counter to the floor. I looked over and saw my father ducked down on the floor, and he said,

"Stay down son," he said as he began to crawl across the floor to me.

Soon after the explosion happened I heard the screeching of tires and then some car doors slam. I peeked around the counter and I saw two guys in trench coats walking towards the shop with big guns in their hands, and I heard one of them say,

"Come on out you rat bastard, we know you're in there!"

"Fuck you," screamed the guy ducked under the window and just after he said that one of the guys with guns leaned in the window and shot the guy a whole bunch of times, leaving him dead on the floor, and then ran back to their car and sped of as fast as they could. After they left my father got up and walked towards the body on the floor and then he said something to me.

"Come on son let's get you home, you don't need to see this." He said as he helped me up and we walked out of the shop and walked home. The walk home was extremely quiet and all I remember saying was, "I understand now pops."

"I know son, I know." After that we walked home and I just went to my room and tried to sleep. During that night it was hard to get to sleep, because all I could think about was all those gunshots, and I thought about it so much that I heard a car backfire and I woke up sweating thinking it was another gunshot. But I eventually got to sleep though.

The next morning when I woke up my pops had already left to go to his shop, probably to clean up. He left me some breakfast but I wasn't too hungry. So I ate the toast and threw the rest away. My old man would've flipped if he knew that, it's a big waist of money, he'd say. But I got dressed and ran down to my pops shop as fast as I could. When I got there he was almost done sweeping up all the glass and the body on the floor was gone.

"Mornin' dad" I said to him.

"Oh, hey morning son, thought you were gonna sleep the whole day away." He said to me in surprise that I came down to his shop.

"No, I wanted to see how you were doin' and if you needed any help cleanin' up."

"No thanks son, I've got it all taken care of," he said and then looked past me out the window. When I turned around to see what he was looking at I saw a man step out of a fancy four door car. He was dressed in a nice dress suit, with polished black shoes and a hat on. He got out of his car and began to walk towards our shop followed by two men that got out of the car with him. When he reached the doorway of the shop he stopped and took off his hat and coat and handed them to the man standing to his right, both these men were well dressed too but none looked as sophisticated as him.

"Mr. Bratzini, my name I John Torrio, you may have heard of me from around the neighborhood, I run a…local business here in the Kitchen. But I have a proposition for you, it appears that a few men that I happen to be closely affiliated with, damaged your shop recently and I would like to formally apologize for that," he said while moving his hands for no reason, as he talked.

"Yes, but its okay I'm almost done cleaning it up," said my father back to him in a stern but kinda scared tone.

"Yes but it'll cost you a fortune to fix these windows, a fortune that a barber does not have. So here's my proposition, Mr. Bratzini," he said as the man on his left reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small wad of cash and handed it to Mr. Torrio, "I would like to give this to you as a token of my sincerest apologies, and I would like to offer you a form of protection to assure you that nothing like this ever happens to your nice little shop again." He said as he extended his arm holding the money towards my father.

When my father saw this money he knew that the man was right, I even knew that he couldn't afford to fix the windows. But my pops just sat there for a moment and starred at the money for a few seconds and then he looked down at me and then back at Mr. Torrio.

"Um…Mr. Torrio, please could we talk in my back room, in a more private setting?" He said as he looked and hinted towards me.

"Sure thing, I understand completely." When he agreed to this my father hurried them to the back room which was really just a store room, where he kept all his after shave and stuff. Because my old man was in such a hurry to get them back there he didn't shut the door all the way leaving just enough room for a nosy little kid like me to peer in and listen to them talk.

"Mr. Torrio, I don't mean to be rude but I don't want to have anything to do with the life that you're involved in, and I especially don't want my son to be anywhere near it." My father said to him.

"I understand your plight Mr. Bratzini, but I also would take it as a personal insult if you would not accept my offer. So I'm going to set forth a new proposition, either you accept my most generous offer or I can guarantee, that more this will happen again. Over, and over. Now what is your answer?"

After this my father just stood there for a moment, with his arms folder up, and his fist on his chin. He stood there for damn near a minute before he realized that the door was still open and some one was watching him, and he knew it was me. So he quickly walked over to the door and slammed it shut. A few minutes later the door opened and I hopped off the counter to try and figure out what happened.

"I appreciate you stopping by Mr. Torrio and no disrespect intended but I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. I still have a lot of cleaning to do." My dad said to Mr. Torrio.

"None taken sir, I must make myself scarce as it is. Have a good afternoon Mr. Bratzini." He said back to my father while shaking his hand, "Cute kid." He said and then walked out the door. I watched him walk away and before he got into his car the man holding his coat and hat, put the coat back on his shoulders and the hat in his hands, and then opened the door for him.

"So what happened Pop? Did you take the money? What did he mean by, "this will happen again?" And how could he guarantee it?" I couldn't help but ask because I was still a nosey little kid, but he said nothing back to me. He just picked up his broom and continued sweeping up the glass, without saying another word.

I found out the next day he took the money. Not cause he told me, but the windows were all fixed and I saw a glass repair truck pull away when I showed up. But nothing ever happened again, not for about six years. I never even saw a guy get threatened on our block. There were a lot of guys in suits around, and every week I saw one of the guys that came with Mr. Torrio that day. He would come into my fathers' store, and they would go and meet in the back room, and then they would shake hands, and he would leave. But one day when I was about fifteen, the guy who worked for Torrio left didn't shake my fathers' hand, and he looked pretty angry. So when he left I ran over to my dad and said,

"Hey pops, what happened in there, he didn't look very happy?"

So my dad just stood there for a second staring out the window then said, "Well son, you probably already know why he comes here every week, don't you?"

"Well yeah pops, one day I asked him while he was leaving, it's about the money right?"

"Yeah, and business has been slow recently so I wasn't able to pay him this time, and I don't think he's was too happy about that." He said and then walked into the back room and sat down on a box so he could think for a while.

So I left my dad alone for a while so he could think to himself. I decided I would close up the shop for him and sweep up all the hair on the floor. So after I swept up all the hair I bagged it up and took it outside to throw it in the dumpster, and I saw this kid, who looked about my age walkin' down the alley, and at the time I didn't think anything of it, so I threw the bag away and walked back into the shop to hear my dad talking to someone. So before I made my self known, I peered into the front room through the cracked open door like always and I saw Mr. Torrio. I couldn't hear what they were saying to each other but I figured I hadn't seen him in a while so I stood up and went to open the door.

"Mr. Torrio how yo…" That's all I was able to say before I saw him and the two guys with him reach into their coats and pull out a few Tommy guns. All I could do was stand there watching them shoot my father. They shot him with the same ferociousness as when they shot the man ducked into the shop. And they wouldn't stop shooting him, even when he fell to the ground the kept on shooting until their guns ran out of ammo, and then they looked up.

"Hey get that kid," shouted Torrio to the guy standing next to him, "and don't let him get outta here alive!"

As soon as he said that I ran back and shut myself in the back room and slid a heavy trunk up against the door.

"What the hell am I gonna do?" I said as I put my head deep in my hands. "I gotta get outta here!" So with that I pulled as much stuff up against the door as possible, and I headed for the back door. I shoved the door open and began to head down the alley when I heard a gun cock behind me, so I turned around. When I did I saw that kid again, the one I had seen when I was throwing away the hair, and he had a gun pointed right at me.

"Hey listen man I didn't do anything, it was my father not me just let me go." I said to him.

"I would if I could man but Torrio said this is the only way I can prove myself, so I gotta do it, no hard feelings," he said this and then began to raise the shot gun he had been holding and pointed it right at me.

"Listen I'll make it up to you, I don't know how but I will, just LET ME GO!"

"I…I can't…I'm sorry." He said and got ready to pull the trigger but, for some reason he hesitated, "Ah, alright just go I'll cover for you I'll say you hit me and took my gun, here, I don't care what you do with it just get rid of it." He said as he handed me the gun in his hands.

"Thanks, find me sometime and ill make it up to you I promise," I said as I began to walk away and then I turned around and said, "Hey my name is Tommy, Tommy Bratzini."

"I know man just go git outta here, before they get you!"

So I ran I didn't know where I was gonna go, I just knew I had to get out of the kitchen, I guess the first thing I thought of was to go to my uncles house, over in Little Italy. He had a nice little house and a family there and my pops always said if I needed anything my uncle had the friends to help me, and that he had some kind of connection with a "family" over there. So I hitched a ride on a truck that was takin apples to somewhere, I managed to sneak a few for my self. We finally reached Little Italy and I hopped off and ran over to the side walk, trying to figure out how to get to my uncles house.

"Scuse me, do you know where I can find the home of Paulie Bratzini?" I said to a man passing by.

"Paulie Bratzini! Of course I know where he lives, who doesn't?" He said as if I should know, "But, uh… Who's askin?"

"Oh, He's my uncle, I'm Tommy Bratzini." I said, to him.

"Tommy! Tommy? Is that you? I haven't seen you since you were just a little Bratzini. It's me, your Uncle Paulie, What're you doin all the way down here, you're a ways from the kitchen to be all by yourself?"

I remember feeling my eyes swell up with tears, as I said to him, "It's my pops, Paulie, He's dead."


	3. The Altercation

**Chapter 2**

**The Altercation **

"Dead! What do you mean he's dead? What happened son?" Paulie said in an urgent tone. "Never mind right now, first let's get you somewhere safe." He said this and then we hopped inside his car a few blocks away and headed towards his home. He sat me down in the living room on this pea soup colored couch, and told me he was going to have his wife make me something to eat and then left into the kitchen to talk to her. I wasn't able to hear what they were saying but I do remember hearing my uncle yelling. A lot. Not like he was yelling at her but just as if he was yelling about something that had happened, like my dad. A few minutes later my aunt Gladice came out of the kitchen through the swinging door, with a tray in her hands and set it down on the little table in front of me.

"Here you go sweetie," she said and I looked down at the tray. There was a glass of something hot, I wasn't to sure what it was, and underneath a little white napkin was a sandwich. Man did that sandwich look good especially since I hadn't eaten what my dad had made me.

"Is uncle Paulie okay? He sounded pretty angry." I said to my aunt.

"Yeah he's okay, he's just a little frustrated right now, especially because of your father. But he'll be okay." She said to me as she picked up the plate the sandwich was on and put it on the table next to the little cup. Then she took the tray and walked back into the kitchen without another word.

So I sat there quietly and ate my sandwich and drank whatever it was in the little cup and then I just sat there some more. I sat there until finally my uncle Paulie said something really loud and then burst his way into the living and sat down next to me.

"Okay Tommy I need you to listen carefully now, what happened? I need you to try and remember who it was that did this, did you know him?

"Well uh, yeah, his name was Mr. Torrio, he came in a few years ago and him and my father talked about something, my dad took him into the back room of the shop, so that's how I knew it was important. I know it had something to do with money, I saw Mr. Torrio hand my dad some money so I know that for sure." As I said this to my uncle I watched his face just get redder and redder I could tell he was pissed.

"Son of a bitch! That bastard was extorting your father kid. Son of a bitch!" He said and then kick the table in the living room over. Normally I would have been scared from an outburst like that but after seeing what I saw, I wasn't scared anymore.

"Hey uncle Paulie, what's _extortion_?" I said, trying to figure out why he was so mad.

"What? oh, uh… extortion is when somebody threatens to hurt someone or break something important to them unless the person pays them a certain amount of money. And that's what they did to your father. Who did you say it was again? Torrio?

"Yeah, Mr. Torrio, he seemed like such a nice guy."

"Don't ever believe that someone's a nice guy it makes you let your guard down. Bad things happen when you let your guard down." He said this and then walked over to the phone sitting behind the couch and picked it up to call somebody.

"Yeah, hello? It's Paulie, I've got a small problem, yeah I need you to find someone for me, Yeah, his name is Torrio, Johnny Torrio, find out everything you can, who his connections are his soldiers, down to who he's fucking, I wanna know everything. Yeah, alright thanks Michael." he hung up the phone and came over and sat down next to me and said, "Everything's gonna be okay, your father was a good man, and didn't deserve to go out like that, I'll set everything straight. Now come on Let's get you to bed you need your rest."

"Thanks uncle Paulie. My dad always said I could count on you if I needed to."

"He said that? Really? Wow, I thought he hated me." I didn't find out till a few days later that my pops and my uncle had some bad blood between them. I guess that last time they saw each my dad nearly knocked his head off with a shovel. It's a long story. Basically, it started over my mother. My uncle and my pops alike both said that she was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. But my pops got to her first. My dad was dating her for a little while, and he was playing stick ball out in the street one day and I guess my moms was sitting on her front steps just watching him play, and my uncle being the "smooth" young man he was, as he put it, went over and started talking to my mother. They talked for a little while and just when uncle Paulie was gonna make his move he decided what she was doin watching all these ruff kids playin' in the street. And so she told him. She told him about how she was dating my father, and that struck a chord in uncle Paulie. So he told her how he was my dads brother and all but that didn't stop him. He just kept trying to get her. And eventually it led to a small fight, which led to a bigger fight, which led to my uncle getting hit with a shovel. That's basically it in a nutshell.

That night when I was sleeping, I was actually getting decent sleep that night, and I heard a heavy car door slam and what sounded like muffled screaming. So I got up outta bed and peered through the frilly curtains that aunt Gladice had put up in their spare room, and I saw two guys jerkin this, tied up and gagged guy, around and yellin at him and askin him questions. Then I saw my uncle walk out of the house and just stood in front of the guy for a minute I could hear that he was sayin something but I couldn't make it out. So I figured I would crack the window open, so I did it, but it was hard because the hinges on the window were broken and noisy. But now I could hear my uncle clearly.

"Do you know who I am? Huh? Do ya, you piece a shit?" My uncle screamed at the tied up guy.

"Mmm, hmm." The muffled guy tried to say back to him.

"Good, now, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna ask you a few questions, and your gonna answer em. And each time you don't give me and answer, or you lie to me I'm gonna cut something off. You got that?"

"Mmm, Hmm."

"Alright take off the gag, and if you scream mother fucker I'm gonna fuckin' kill you where you stand."

After he said I this I started to think to myself. My father told me that Foul language was a waste of English, and it has no purpose to be said. But watchin' my uncle Paulie scream at this guy, I started to understand. When you're in a position of power, you do things that uphold that power. Even if it's just words, watchin Paulie showed me that fear is power cause when they took off that gag that man didn't scream a word.

"All right, question number one, who do you work for?"

"John Torrio." Said the guy who seemed scared shitless.

"Good, looks like someone knows how to follow instructions. Question number two, who all were involved in the murder at Pops Barbershop?"

"There was one guy, I didn't know his name but he does work for Torrio, I know that, and Torrio himself was involved." He said as blood was still dripping out of his mouth.

"Was there anybody else?"

"No, that was all, I swear that's all I know, just please let me go." I knew he was lying. I remember that face. There were three guys involved and he was one of em.

"Son of a bitch," I said to myself.

"Alright," said my uncle, "Were gonna find out just how good at following directions you are. I heard…rumors, that you were involved in this, mishap, is that true?"

"No, of course not, I try to stay clear of that kind of stuff, it's too dirty for me." As soon as I heard him say no I jumped up off the bed and headed to the front door, and walked outside.

"He's full of shit uncle Paulie," I said as I felt tears fill up my eyes, "That son of a bitch was there, I saw him pull the trigger, and then he came after me."

"You Little shit!" The guy got out before uncle Paulie punched him in the stomach.

"This true? Is what my nephew here says true, you piece a shit? You killed my brother and then tried to kill my nephew?"

"I'm sorry Paulie, I didn't know he was your brother, he was so far away from little Italy, I couldn't of made that connection. I'm sorry." Said the guy while his head was hangin down, and the other two guys were holding him up.

"So it is true. You know what you did you piece a shit, you just lied to me. You remember what I said was gonna happen if you lied to me?"

"I'm sorry Paulie I was just followin' orders, I'm sorry!"

"Oh so first you weren't there, then you couldn't make the connection, now you were just following orders? Well you just followed your last order motherfucker." After this my uncle Paulie pulled out a knife and cut of one of his fingers. I didn't even look away. After, watching this man kill my father for no good reason, even what was about to happen next wasn't good enough for him. He hadn't earned it yet.


End file.
